Australia likely to come to Bangladesh

04 Jan, 2017 20:03:57

Sports Desk:James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive, has said that the chances of Australia’s tour to Bangladesh later this year are "quite possible ". The Steven Smith led side are most likely to play two Tests against the Asian team if there are no further security issues.

Initially, the tour had to occur in October 2015, but after receiving advice from the Australian government that there were "high risks" if they went ahead, the series was postponed. Cricket Australia (CA) even withdrew their U-19 team from the World Cup played in Bangladesh in January 2016.

"I think they [chances] are quite high," Sutherland said to ABC radio on Wednesday (January 4). "What we saw at the end of last year was the England team tour Bangladesh. We certainly saw very strong security around the team. We actually sent our head of security, Sean Carroll, over to observe for seven or ten days, just to get a little bit of comfort on the systems and processes that were in place.

"Anything can take place between now and then, and we continue to look after what's happening in Bangladesh, but we work on the assumption that we're going to play and we start to plan accordingly. But we certainly get a good deal of comfort from the way in which the security measures were put in place by the Bangladesh government, in conjunction with the cricket board over there. At the moment I would assume that we would be playing two Tests over there."